Last
Friday I arrived in the Dominican Republic to deliver a set of seminars on the
7 Mindsets. Imagine my surprise when, walking through the airport, I saw news
reporters and camera crews rushing towards me.
Just as I was thinking, “Now this is the way to be welcomed to a
country,” the reporters ran past me shouting, “Tony Peña! Congratulations and welcome home!” I turned, and walking behind me was the
general manager for the Dominican baseball team that had just won the World
Baseball Classic. I couldn’t help but
laugh, and my experience inspired this week’s story…
While
growing up, David’s parents often trusted him to look after his three younger
siblings, which helped him develop maturity and a sense of leadership at a
young age. He was a calming influence in
the household, easygoing and taking jokes well.
He also had a great sense of humor, and made friends everywhere he went.
David
was tall, strong, and filled out early, embracing the role of a slugger from a
young age and sticking with it into high school. His relaxed nature served him well, and his
love for being at the ballpark was obvious every day, whether he was hitting or
not. With his talent so obvious, David
drew the attention of major league baseball scouts. Ten days after his 17th birthday,
he was drafted. David traveled from his
home in the Dominican Republic to the US.
He didn’t speak much English, and called every teammate he met “Papi.”
His
first taste of professional baseball saw David struggling at bat. He did well in the field, surprisingly agile
for his size, and got more comfortable over the next two years. Playing for a number of minor-league teams,
David’s game improved and he was promoted to the major league. But just as his skills and intensity were
coming into focus, David fractured a bone in his wrist.
The
next several years were up and down for David.
He was demoted back to a minor league team after a poor showing at
spring training, but his hitting destroyed the pitchers he encountered there,
and he was brought back up at the end of the season. Determined to stay, he worked on his defense,
undertook extra batting practice, and got himself into great shape. He set several career highs and bolstered his
team’s growing strength. However, at the
end of a very positive run for his team, another wrist injury sidelined him.
A
few months later, just when he was finally getting the snap of his swing back,
tragedy struck David’s family when his mother was killed in a car accident on
New Year’s Day. His response was to
throw himself into baseball as he never had, but although his team’s record was
better with him than without him, they weren’t confident about his
consistency. After his knee began to
bother him, he went half a season without a home run and was traded.
Despite
being the new kid on the block, David’s presence was immediately felt in the
locker room. His new team, a self-styled
“Band of Misfits,” was a collection of fiery and erratic personalities, but
David managed to fit right in and befriend them all. On the field, he rose to the challenge in
those desperate, all-or-nothing moments, and thrived as his playing time
increased and the team came together as a unit around him. David continued calling all of his teammates
Papi until one of them turned the tables, calling him “Big Papi.” The nickname stuck.
In
the fourth game of the 2004 American League Championship, the New York Yankees
led three games to zero over David “Big Papi” Ortiz’s Boston Red Sox, and were
on the verge of eliminating the Sox from advancing to the World Series. However, in the ninth inning, Ortiz’s
game-ending home run kept his team alive, and he led them to an historic defeat
of the Yankees. The Boston Red Sox went
on to win the World Series for the first time in eighty-six years.
David
Ortiz may have grown up in an impoverished community, but his will to overcome
challenges and keep “swinging away” in life has led to one of the most
remarkable careers in baseball. At age
37, he is an eight-time All-Star who holds the Red Sox single season home run
record. Not bad considering that Babe
Ruth once played for the very same team.
It’s no wonder that the team gave him a plaque proclaiming Ortiz, "the
greatest clutch-hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox.”
There’s
an old saying in baseball that you can’t steal second while keeping your foot
on first. Set your dreams high and swing
for the fences!
Until next week...
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